Enjoy, laugh, disagree or simply empathize with those who lived life in THE sixties and are now rockin' life in THEIR sixties, and beyond.

E-book readers to be reimbursed

As an avid reader, I was one of the first to purchase a Kindle e-reader when they originally launched several years ago. The benefits seemed obvious—fewer hard copy books to overwhelm my limited bookshelf space, easy access from my LaZgirl and most important, less expensive than paperbacks. That illusion was soon shattered when Amazon’s original $9.99 price tag began creeping up to $14.99, $16.99 and even higher. Apple threatened to not carry the publishers’ titles on iTunes if publishers didn’t squeeze Amazon to match iTune’s prices. In simple language, Apple was guilty of price-fixing and consumers soon made themselves heard.

Can’t wait for my refunds to start rolling in – but I’m not optimistic.

It’s been about four years since the original hoorah began and it seems consumers are finally being awarded restitution for being ripped off. Apple has been ordered by the U.S. Justice Department to refund purchasers and they were fined $400 million. Most of this money will be credited to accounts where the purchases were made.

My own gripe with the cost of e-books was taken care of by purchasing an iPad and a Kobo, both of which allow me to download library books at no cost at all, which is the ultimate revenge. Libraries do pay a royalty based on the number of copies of an e-book title they purchase but it did save me a shit-load of money. I’ll be watching my Amazon account for a credit but it’ll be interesting to see if it ever materializes. The bottom line is, price-fixing is not acceptable or legal and the bad guys got caught. Apple was even denied a Supreme Court appeal which says a lot about the public’s level of tolerance for the practice. For once, the consumer won. Thank you Department of Justice for doing your job.

As an early Baby Boomer, born in 1947, it seems to me that as we approach our retirement years, Boomers have gone from being the energy driving our nation to slowly becoming invisible. We risk losing our identity as society remains stubbornly youth-centric. And the irony is that Gen Xers and Ys are not the majority; we are. BOOMERBROADcast is my platform for being the voice of Baby Boomers, women in particular. We've generated a lot of changes over the decades but there's still a long way to go. After a 40-year career in the corporate world, I've taken up expressing the observations and concerns of our generation. Instead of pounding the pavement in my bellbottoms with a cardboard sign, I'm pounding my laptop (I learned to type on a manual typewriter and old habits die hard).
If you have issues or concerns you would like voiced or have comments on what I've voiced, I'd love to hear from you. We started breaking the rules in the sixties and now that we're in our sixties it's no time to become complacent. Hope you'll stay tuned and if you like BOOMERBROADcast, share it with your friends.
Let's rock n' roll!
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Lynda Davis